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SPECIAL

Ford Territory

SPECIAL

Ford Territory

Ford V8 Champion Swaps Road Cars with WRC Stars

Staff, Wednesday April 14, 2004.

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Also part of the day was former New Zealand V8 Touring Car champion Mark Pedderson.

Ambrose let the rally stars sample a Falcon XR8 road car around the Pukekohe Park Raceway, while the European stars passed on techniques for the Focus ST170 road.

Ambrose will return to Pukekohe at the end of the month for the third round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, where he currently lies second.

Märtin and Duval finished first and second in the recent WRC round in Mexico, with Märtin taking joint lead in the drivers championship and in the process giving Ford the top spot in the Manufacturers? title.

All drivers enjoyed the day at Pukekohe with the opportunity to swap stories of their battles on the racetracks and rally roads a highlight.

?The day was a lot of fun and it?s a great example of Ford?s various racing programs,? said Ambrose.

?I do follow the WRC very closely and after talking with Markko and François it was great to get a further insight into top flight rallying.

?The boys had a blast in the XR8 and it was fun to give the ST170 a full workout.

?We came away with the promise of giving each other a go in the V8 Supercar and the WRC car. Although I think we?ll all stick with our chosen discipline of racing.

?It?s a big month for racing in NZ and hopefully Ford can win the rally and we can back that up with a win in the V8?s.?

One of the hottest drivers on the world rally stage, Estonian Märtin was impressed with the XR8 road car.

?This is certainly different to what we have in Europe, this is a great car,? said Märtin.

?Just the sound of the car when it starts up was a big buzz. The V8 power certainly backed that up around the racetrack.

?I?d love to see the racecar version. Hopefully Ford in Australia and the Stone Brothers Racing team would be good enough to give me a few laps in the future.

?The biggest change for me wasn?t the car. It was driving on a circuit. I have never actually raced on a track and I?m happy to stay on the rally roads.?

Duval from Belgium took full advantage of the day exploring the limitations of the XR8 Falcon.

?After such a long flight from Europe, that got the cobwebs out ahead of this weekend,? said Duval.

?We don?t have the opportunity to run the rally cars until the shakedown test, but I?ve already given the tyres a hammering on the road cars.

?Marcos is a very good driver and it was good to spend some time with one of Ford?s championship winning drivers. I hope that in a couple of years I can be sharing my championship experience with him.?

The BP Ford Rallye Sport team will debut the evolution version of the all-new Focus RS WRC this weekend in Rally New Zealand.

With victory in Mexico behind them Ford comes into New Zealand as favourites. A victory in NZ for Ford would break a drought dating back well over 20 years. Since the introduction of the V8 Supercar Championship Series 2001, Ford or any other driver other than Greg Murphy has been able to win at Pukekohe.

FIA World Rally Championship (after round 3 of 16)
Drivers
1. S. Loeb 10pts
2. M. Märtin 8pts
3. F. Duval 6pts
4. M. Grönholm 5pts
5. F. Loix 4pts
6. G. Panizzi 3pts
7. P. Solberg 2pts
8. O. Burri 1pt

Manufacturers
1. Ford 14pts
2. Citroen 10pts
3. Peugeot 9pts
4. Mitsubishi 3pts
5. Subaru 2pts

Top-10 V8 Supercar championship ? after 2 of 13 rounds

1. Steven Richards - Castrol Perkins Motorsport - Holden Commodore 360 pts
2. Marcos Ambrose ? Pirtek Racing ? Ford Falcon BA 348 pts
3. Rick Kelly ? KMart Racing ? Holden Commodore 336 pts
4. Greg Murphy ? KMart Racing ? Holden Commodore 327 pts
5. Jason Bargwanna ? Orrcon Steel Racing ? Ford Falcon BA 270 pts
6. Jason Bright ? PWR Racing ? Holden Commodore 267 pts
7. Paul Morris ? Sirromet Racing ? Holden Commodore 264 pts
8. Craig Baird ? Team Kiwi Racing ? Holden Commodore 258 pts
9.Garth Tander ? Valvoline Cummins Racing ? Holden Commodore 222 pts
10. John Bowe ? OzEmail Racing ? Ford Falcon BA 216 pts

Further information and high-resolution images relating to Ford Racing Australia can also be found at : media.ford.com

For further information contact:
Mark Wilford
Media Coordinator
Ford Rallye Sport
Phone: +64 9 915 9333
Mobile: +44 7770 756214
Email: mwilford@ford.com

Ben Beazley
Media Coordinator
Ford Racing Australia
Phone: 03 9359 8190
Mobile: 0417 262 753
Email: benb@global-marketing.com

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